Medusa

As with all kinds of Martial Arts, fighting with swords or other type of weapons bears the risk of getting injured. But that's why you have to practise regularly in order to minimize that risk, also to wear protection such as helmets, manicae and not to go for the head esp. when you comrade does not wear a helmet such as our retiarius. We are very cautious about that and for any newbie it is important to get manica and helmet as soon as possible in order to receive a proper training. I never got seriously injured neither by practising gladiatura nor by my Chinese Martial Art Wing Tsun, only bruises which are normal. But I got a partially torn ligament when running after a ball during a soccer training at school (neither ball nor leg nearby) and ruptures of muscle fibers when doing jogging as warm up before a training session.

Like all reenactment groups (no matter if Romans, Vikings, Medieval Knights etc.) we fight of course with blunt weapons. Our fights are not choreographed but free fights and either you pretend dying when you get hit at a lethal point or you give up when you receive a hit at a point which would injure you seriously with a sharp weapon. Mock fights would be for me fights which make fun out of the thing. This we do not. The audience reacts positively to our displays as they are not mere fighting but also information on gladiators. Our next gig will be at Europ

As I said the only depiction of female gladiators is the relief from Halicarnassos showing two fighters names Amazon and Achillia. This relief is today displayed at the British Museum in London where I took a picture of it when I had been in London two years ago. You could see it here: http://www.ludus-nemesis.eu/bilder/halikarnassos_600x498.jpg

A munus was divided into three parts so to say: in the morning the beast hunts, at noon-time the executions, in the afternoon the gladiatorial combats as highlight of the day. This question makes it clear that you have not read my article in which I summarize e.g. the article by Stephen Brunet in which he points out that it is a misinterpretation that women faught against dwarfs. Before I repeat here my article I strongly recommend you to check out the link given by Viggen in the first post of this thread, there you will find the answer.

The other one is names Achillia. Please see the link to my website mentioned at the previous post. Yes, this was considered unfair so women fought against women only and men against men only, at least when talking about gladiatorial combat and not the noon-time executions. Because I lack a second women still in my group I have to fight against my male comrades though but in our group chances are equal.

I fight as a provocatrix based on the relief find at Halicarnassos (today's Bodrum in Turkey). The relief is today on display at the British Museum in London. Women are literarily attested as fighting as venatrices (but venatores are not gladiators but beast fighters!) and in the class of essedarii. But what these gladiators looked liked is not that clear although Junkelmann did some reconstructions on those. It remains unclear if they started their fights on chariots similarly to the equites beginning their fights on horseback and dismounted later on in the combat or if only their name derived from chariot fighters but they fought on foot only. The scholar assume that women fought in all gladiatorial classes even if this is not explicitely mentioned. For further information please feel free to check out my website esp. what I wrote about gladiatrices: http://www.ludus-nemesis.eu/en/gladiatrices_en.html

I'm reading as a bed time story a novel by Steven Saylor "The Judgment of Caesar" (of the Roma Sub Rosa series). As non-fiction I'm reading the papers of the Amphitheaters conference in Chester held in Feb. 2007 which have been finally published by BAR International Series 1946, ed. Tony Wilmott.

I voted for a bit of everything because I'm mainly interested in Gladiators, the Roman Army and Culture and Daily Life in that order. I'm the least interested in politics or even Roman law although that's the basis of most modern laws.

It was very remarkable when a gladiator fought as a south-paw that it was stated e.g. in graffitis on the walls of Pompeii or in other type of inscriptions. Even on some frescoes or mosaics you see left-handed gladiators. As mentioned by caldrail Commodus was left-handed, he fought as a secutor scaeva, i.e. left-handed standard opponent of the retiarius (net-fighter). A left-handed fighter might have the advantage of being used to fight right-handed opponents because most of his training comrades must have been right-handed while a right-handed fighter might be surprised when suddenly being paired against a south-paw.

For the SVR board I wrote an article on misconceptions regarding gladiators: http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium...conceptions.php

Yes, that's what the scholars assume.

Indeed the crupellarius is mentioned only once literally. And then there is a little statuette found in France, dating from 1st century AD which is supposedly a crupellarius. Yes, I know that this Hungarian group is having a crupellarius in their program cause I've seen their performance.

At the exhibition "Luxus & Dekadenz" which was in December 2007 in Bremen, Germany they also showed a murmillo helmet but one of the type without decoration, together with a pair of thraex/hoplomachus greaves and the gladiator daggers used by retiarii or hoplomachi as secondary weapons. It's really nice to see these things you know from pictures in books in real. So far I didn't make it to the National Museum in Naples though I had been twice on a day trip to Pompeii. Those pictures from that murmillo helmet made be drool - BTW the little text beneath the first photo was a good practise for my Italian.

Wilmott divides them into different categories: Urban amphitheaters associated with towns e.g. London, most of them found in the South of England Legionary amphitheaters which are located close to legionary forts, e.g. Chester Auxiliary amphitheaters which are located close to auxiliary forts, e.g. Tomen-y-Mur The type of theater-amphitheater mentioned in an earlier post might be connected to a religious cult similar to that in Gaul where this type of building is more frequent.

Wilmott states in his book that in Colchester traces of a theater have been found while those buildings in St. Albans (Verulamium) and Canterbury are of the theater-amphitheater (or "mixed edifice") type which is typical for Gaul. For the Colchester theater he states the following source: Crummy, P., 1982 "The Roman theatre at Colchester", Britannia, 13, 299-302

Inspired by Northern Neil's review of Ancient Warfare mag, Issue 2.III to which I contributed the article about amphitheaters in military context I would like to point out that there are several amphitheaters in Britain. Some are better excavated, e.g. that in Chester, others not so good. But you could see their traces, like Tomen-y-Mur in Wales. There are two good books available on those topics: R. Wilding, Roman Amphitheatres in England and Wales, 2005, Chester This is more or less a list of all the sites, some have been recently rejected by scholars such as Tony Wilmott, but as a tourist guide to those sites this book is good. T. Wilmott, The Roman Amphitheatre in Britain, 2008, Stroud This book gives more indepth knowledge about the topic in total. For those interested more in this topic this is definitely a recommended read.

This is not a gig actually but we had been filmed by a local TV crew and the thing was broadcasted at the end of April on NDR (North-German Television). Now our webmaster uploaded this film to our website and those of you who understand German could follow this link to watch it: http://www.ludus-nemesis.eu/galerie5.html

Festival at Excavation Site Vicus Wareswald, Tholey, Saarland (Germany) June 14, 2009, beginning at 10.00 a.m. Like last year we will be again a part of this festival. Website (in German only): http://www.terrexggmbh.de/html/wir_uber_uns.html Festival VITA ROMANA at European Archaeological Park Reinheim (Germany) August 15, 2009, beginning at 10.00 a.m. This park is a mutual project of Germany and France and we will be part of the festival on the German side. Website (German): http://www.kulturpark-online.de/ Website (French): http://www.archeo57.com/frontSite?contr ... me〈=fr

Since I'm an active member on the RAT (Roman Army Talk) Forum I got to know about Ancient Warfare from the beginning and even contributed an article for the current issue Vol. III No. 2 about amphitheaters in a military context. Most articles deal with the analysis of ancient battles, not only Roman but also Greek and sometimes even of other peoples. I miss articles about the life of a soldier besides the actual warfare. Especially the life of a Roman legionary was much much more than the actual warfare. But for those interested in ancient battles it is definitely a very good magazine.

I'm reading "The Roman Amphitheatre in Britain" by Tony Wilmott of English Heritage. It is a very interesting read.

Thanks to the UNRV team for uploading my article.

Happy Birthday from me, too! Enjoy the family dinner.

About Britain I could speak only as tourist looking out for Roman things in Britain. In London the museums of course have Roman sections esp. the British Museum which also has a department dealing with British-Romano-History and other sections dealing with Roman stuff from all over the world. Also at the London Museum they trace the history of Londinium. In Chester they seem to be more proud of their Roman ancestry as there is a group which leads Roman walks in legionary uniforms taking the visitors to the Roman sites of that town. To me it appeared that the Romans are more present in Chester than in London.

Salvete, I took on this board the name I'm using nearly on all other (Roman) boards (except for SVR) which is my arena name Medusa. And that I had chosen as it's catchy and many gladiators had arena names from Greek mythology.

I just started reading "Gladiators - Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome" by Roger Dunkle. So far of course nothing new on this topic only interesting prespective.